Troopers said if the toddler had been buckled in a car seat, she would have survived.

The crash happened just before 1 a.m. Thursday at the end of the Perrysville Avenue ramp off of northbound I-279.

According to a report from the Pennsylvania State Police, Taylor Jefferson, 24, of Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, was driving north when he stopped in the left lane and put the car in reverse. His car collided with another northbound car driven by Daniel White, 21, of Pittsburgh. Troopers believe the driver passed the exit and was trying to get back to it.

Taylor Jefferson and another passenger in his car, Tyrek Jefferson, 22, of Pittsburgh, were taken to Allegheny General Hospital along with White. Family friends say Sariyah was Tyrek's daughter.

Strangers stopped at the scene to try to help the victims. One man said he arrived seconds after the crash and tried to get the child out of the car. He described the scene as chaotic.

A Ross Township police officer drove Saryiah's ambulance so paramedics could treat her on the way to the hospital.

A cousin of the child told WPXI, "We are all heartbroken. She was only 2 years old, didn't even have a chance at life. She was just too perfect for this earth. We will miss her terribly. We just need prayers to make it through this hard time."

The outbound Parkway North was closed between the McKnight Road exit and Perrysville for about four hours.

Charges are pending in this case. Police are awaiting toxicology results.

The controversy began when Shari Hurston Tatum appeared in court Nov. 8 for a traffic ticket. She waived her right to an attorney and jury trial, but demanded a bench hearing, Jones said.

When Tatum reappeared in court Wednesday for that hearing, Jones played video of the traffic incident and decided Tatum was guilty of blocking the intersection and further that Tatum was guilty of perjury. He sentenced her to two days in jail.

“I have not offered my resignation to Ms. Merris or the City Commission, nor have I spoken with Ms. Merris or the Commissioners as of this date relating to my judgeship,” Jones wrote on Thursday.

But Decatur officials say Jones had resigned verbally in conversation the day before with Stroud.

“After listening to his report and sharing my concerns and subsequent expectations for what had gone forth in the Court earlier, Judge Jones tendered his verbal resignation to me last night,” Stroud said in an email to Merriss.

Stroud further said she accepted the resignation immediately on behalf of the city.

Jones said on Sunday he meant only to maintain that he would not change his order in Tatum’s case and that he intended to seek further clarification from Stroud.

“I had no intent to offer the resignation of my position to Judge Stroud, I was merely expressing my intent do so in the future if the political pressures being exerting upon me to change my order were to persist,” Jones wrote.

Based on his resignation, Jones is no longer a member of the City of Decatur Municipal Court, Merriss said.

“I swear if you don’t (expletive) land I will (expletive) kill everyone on this (expletive) plane,” the woman says in the video.

KOVR reported that the witness who recorded the video said the woman, Valerie Curbelo, 24, was caught smoking in the bathroom of the plane and attempted to interfere with the smoke detector. She was told to go back to her seat when she began yelling and making threats. According to the witness, Curbelo had to be restrained by crew members for the last 30 minutes flight, which lasted about an hour and 20 minutes.

Curbelo was arrested by law enforcement at the gate. She was booked into the Saramento County Jail and making criminal threats.

Curbelo spoke to KOVR from her jail cell. She said she smoked because she was anxious, but she did not provides and explanation for the threat she is accused of making, or what she was anxious about.

“I don’t know,” Curbelo, who is from Sandy, Oregon, said. “It was not me. It was not me.”

Curbelo wouldn’t say why she was flying to Sacramento.

Southwest airlines provided a statement to KOIN on the incident:

“Our Crew in command of Flight 2943 traveling from Portland on Saturday afternoon safely landed on-time in Sacramento following an inflight disturbance. Our reports from Flight Attendants indicate a Customer violated federal laws by both smoking onboard an aircraft and by tampering with a smoke detector in an aircraft restroom. Our Crew enforced the regulation and that was followed by the passenger outburst. The safety of our Crew and Passengers is our top priority and we take all threats seriously. The Pilots declared an emergency to receive priority handling from air traffic controllers, and our Crew handled the situation onboard until the plane landed and local authorities stepped in. The flight carried 136 Customers and a Crew of five.”

Who is Akayed Ullah, suspect in New York explosion?

NEW YORK CITY — Four people were injured Monday morning when an explosive device went off in an underground passageway near Times Square, New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. Among those injured was a man suspected of strapping the device to himself and carrying it toward Times Square.